Recently I read a passage in Richard Tarnas’ book, Passion of the Western Mind, that really got me thinking again about just how incredible and amazing the incarnation of Christ is. The words of Mr. Tarnas are especially apropo in view of the upcoming Christmas season where we remember the birth of Christ. Writing about the unreasonableness of believing in the incarnation & the gospel, he wrote; “…that an infinite eternal God would have suddenly become a particular human being in a specific historical time and place only to be ignominiously executed. That a single brief life taking place two millennia earlier in an obscure primitive nation, on a planet now known to be a relatively insignificant piece of matter revolving about one star among billions in an inconceivably vast and impersonal universe— that such an undistinguished event should have an overwhelming cosmic or eternal meaning could no longer be a compelling belief for reasonable men.” 1
For some, His words, whether intended or not, cast doubt on the reasonableness of believing in the incarnation (the Christmas story) and the gospel itself. Why, we might ask, would the Infinite God of the universe care enough about this little speck in the vast universe to send Jesus to live and die for us? The Psalmist said it this way, “What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” 2 I love the way the same verse reads in The Message. “Why do you bother with us? Why take a second look our way?” 3
The answer is found in the words of Jesus. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…”4 The thoughts that Mr. Tarnas wrote do not cause me to doubt at all. For me, the very fact that from a cosmic perspective, we are, in Tarnas’ words, “relatively insignificant,” in this “vast impersonal universe” speaks forcefully about the extraordinary love that God has for each one of us and the staggering distance He would go to reveal to us that He cared enough about this tiny particle in the universe called earth (and all of its inhabitants) to send His Son to live and die for us. The incarnation of Jesus is proof that none of us are insignificant to God. None of us are too small for God to notice. What Mr. Tarnas describes as an undistinguished event, indeed has a cosmic and eternal meaning.
Bill Ochs, Planned Giving and Trust Services Director
1 Richard Tarnas, Passion of the Western Mind p. 305.
2 Psalm 8:4 NKJV
3 Psalm 8:4 MSG
4 John 3:16 NKJV